ᏥᏍᏆ

ᏣᎳᎩ ᎤᏙᎯᏳᎢ!

ᏩᏙ

ᎬᎾ ᏑᎵ ᎧᏃᎮᏓ ᎦᏂᏓᏛ,ᎠᏖᎳ ᎤᏁᎦ [lining that extends from the tip of its wing along the rear of the wing to its body, ᏃᎴ a head with reddish skin. The ᎬᏂᎨ ᏑᎵ has a shorter tail, silver splotches near the tips of its wings, ᏃᎴ a head with grayish skin. Both ᎬᏂᎨ ᏑᎵ ᏃᎴ ᎬᎾ ᏑᎵ ᎯᎸᏍᎩ ᏥᏍᏆ locate the dead animals or carrion they feed upon by both sight ᏃᎴ smell.

the great ancestral ᏑᎵ had agreed to fly over the ᎡᎶᎯ ᏃᎴ dry the mud with its flapping wings. But when ᏑᎵ finally got into the Smokies region he was so tired that his flailing wings touched down, creating valleys. ᏃᎴ as he wearily uplifted his wings, ᏑᎵ created the mountains. ᏑᎵ was formerly a handsome ᏥᏍᏆ with a topknot that ate only freshly killed meat. In one of the stories, the other animals punished ᏑᎵ for its overbearing pride by tricking it into losing the feathers on its head so that ᏑᎵ was shamed into eating carrion. In other stories, ᏑᎵ lost its head feathers in a futile attempt to obtain the first fire.

Because of ᏑᎵ habit of eating carrion ᏃᎴ its supposed immunity from diseases, the Cherokees thought that ᏑᎵ possessed power over contagious diseases ᏃᎴ regarded it as the doctor among ᎯᎸᏍᎩ ᏥᏍᏆ. ᏑᎵ ᎤᎩᏓᏟ were placed over doorways in many homes as charms. During epidemics entire carcasses were hung up as preventive measures, ᏃᎴ, at times, its blood was drunk as preventive measure. ]